3 Kansas killings have North Jersey Jewish centers on alert

Jewish centers in North Jersey will be on alert as Passover begins tonight, after a gunman opened fire outside a Jewish community center and a nearby senior facility in Kansas on Sunday, killing three people.

Authorities responding to shootings Sunday at a Jewish community center in Overland Park, Kan.

Police in Overland Park, a ­suburb of Kansas City, arrested a man outside a nearby elementary school. The man, identified in media reports as a 73-year-old Missouri resident with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, smiled as he was led away, according to a witness.

Police said the man used a shotgun in the slayings. He also had a handgun when he was arrested, they said.

“We are investigating it as a hate crime,” Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said.

Police and Jewish leaders in North Jersey expressed their concern. For example, in Teaneck, which has a large Jewish population and many synagogues, police Lt. Tanya Balser said the department is increasing its patrols.

Media reports identified the gunman as Frazier Glenn Cross Jr. of Aurora, Mo. Public records show Cross also uses the name Frazier Glenn Miller.

A dispatcher with the Lawrence County, Mo., Sheriff's Department said Sunday night that officers were working with Johnson County, Kan., authorities and the FBI. Another source close to the investigation acknowledged that Miller was the person of interest.

A woman who answered the phone at a number listed for Frazier Glenn Miller said she did not know where he was, then began to cry.

Miller has a long history of anti-Semitic and racist statements. In 2010, as a self-proclaimed write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate from Missouri, Miller purchased or tried to purchase advertising time on several Missouri radio stations. The ads bitterly denounced Jews, the federal government and African-Americans.

“We’ve sat back and allowed the Jews to take over our government, our banks and our media,” one radio commercial said.

The ads were considered so offensive that the Missouri Broadcasters Association asked for permission to ban their use. In June the FCC said Miller wasn’t a bona fide candidate and the ads need not be aired.

The shootings occurred the day before the Jewish holiday that celebrates freedom of the ancient Jews from slavery in Egypt.

Balser said the Teaneck Police Department had been in contact with all the local houses of worship. “We’re always aware of the impact of incidents like this,” she said. “Some of the synagogues have their own security experts, and they are making their own arrangements, and we are increasing police patrols throughout the township.”

In Tenafly, Avi Lewinson, the chief executive of the Kaplen Jewish Community Center on the Palisades, said the center was “consistently updated on current emergency and security procedures, and continues working with local police and our own security experts.”

“As we get ready to celebrate Passover, we are saddened by the shootings. … Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families during this difficult time,” Lewinson said.

Two of the dead were a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather, who attend the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, said church spokeswoman Cathy Bien.

The Rev. Adam Hamilton, the church’s senior pastor, shared the news with church members at the beginning of the evening Palm Sunday service. He said he had been talking to the victims’ family in the hours after the shooting, and they asked him to go through with the Sunday evening worship service.

Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., who is a member of the church, spoke in the hall toward the end of the service: “It’s a very tough moment for our community, a tough moment for our church. It’s a reminder that evil can strike at any time, and today it struck here in Overland Park.”

Five people were hit by the gunfire at the center and the Village Shalom senior living facility around 1 p.m. local time (2 p.m. EDT).

The gunfire at the west side of the Jewish Community Center came as hundreds of teenagers from across the metro area were expected to audition for a singing contest, and actors were rehearsing for a production of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“There were tons of kids, because this was about to start at 1 o’clock,” said Ruth Bigus, the publicist for the “KC SuperStar” event.

Matt Davis, who lives in the neighborhood near Valley Park Elementary, said he saw the suspect smiling as he was being arrested.

“I was wondering, why’s the guy smiling when he was being arrested?”

Davis said he did not hear the suspect say anything anti-Semitic, as some witnesses had reported. He did note that “Passover starts tomorrow, and it’s an extremely important Jewish holiday.”

“We live in this Jewish community,” Davis said. “It’s hard for me to comprehend something like this, a hate crime.”

Davis was out with his son, shopping for a suit for the boy’s bar mitzvah, when he heard about the shootings. His daughter, Abby, was there for a dance event.